


Path Unlocked

by Rhinozilla



Series: Detroit 07 [11]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Detroit Police Department (Detroit: Become Human), Developing Friendships, Gen, Getting to Know Each Other, Humor, Post-Peaceful Android Revolution (Detroit: Become Human), Secrets, Team Bonding, Team as Family, hank is a good detective, some day person and wilson will get first names, today is not that day, you must be a level 4 friend to unlock gavin's back story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-29
Updated: 2019-06-29
Packaged: 2020-05-30 16:00:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19406626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rhinozilla/pseuds/Rhinozilla
Summary: Over the years, Hank has learned certain secrets about the other cops at the DPD. Details about themselves that they don’t want out there. Connor is determined to get to know his fellow officers better, and to do that, he wants to be let in on these secrets. Some secrets are sweet. Some are just odd. Some are secrets for a reason.





	Path Unlocked

**Author's Note:**

> This was a fun one to write, coming up with weird little details about these guys. I love every single one of these characters. I'm sure each of these little revelations will be expanded on in later fics. Enjoy!

There were red velvet cupcakes in the break room. Homemade. Over two dozen of them.

There had been a giant Tupperware full of fudge bars last week. Now cupcakes.

Hank frowned at the perfectly iced tops of the little cakes.

“Well shit,” he mumbled, hands on his hips. “Guess I need to see if Jeffrey is okay.”

On the other side of the break room, Connor looked up from the cup of coffee he’d been making for Hank.

“Captain Fowler?” The android leaned to the right, looking out of the break room and into the bullpen. “He’s in his office. He appears to be fine.”

“Yeah…these tell me otherwise,” Hank said lowly, pointing at the cupcakes.

Connor’s brows knit in confusion, and he walked over to Hank, inspecting the cupcakes as well. Hank watched his LED flicker yellow for a few cycles before sliding back to blue.

“He made these?” Connor concluded aloud.

Hank grunted in the affirmative. “He’s a stress baker. One of the best kept secrets in the precinct. Can always tell when something is bothering him, because shit like this shows up the next day. Cupcakes mean that whatever it is, it’s distracting, but I don’t think it’s anything too serious.”

He looked at Connor, and the android looked absolutely clueless. He snorted.

“Last year, during the fallout from the android revolution, this place had a new cake every day for a week straight. Think we all put on three or four pounds each thanks to that asshole.” Hank sighed.

“The captain finds stress relief in making baked goods,” Connor stated, still looking perplexed.

“Yeah, humans, we find funny little things like that to keep our hands and minds busy when something’s bothering us. Not unlike you and that damn coin sometimes,” Hank pointed out.

“The coin is a recalibration tool—“

“I know, I know.” Hank waved him off. “I know a fidget when I see one.”

Connor huffed slightly, looking back at the cupcakes. “So you are able to ascertain the captain’s stress levels based on the complexity and frequency of baked goods that he brings to the precinct?”

“Something like that. Nobody else knows that he’s the Cake Fairy except me and Ben. It wasn’t hard to figure out, but most of ‘em around here don’t feel the need to question surprise sweets.” Hank chuckled.

“Why is it considered a secret?”

Hank paused, tilting his head, and then shrugged. “I dunno, maybe he doesn’t want everybody knowing when he’s stressed out. There’s something to be said for just using your outlet in peace without people fussing over you. If everybody knew, then they’d all be asking if he’s okay, like I’m about to do.”

“But you just said—“

“I said what I said,” Hank waved him off again.

Connor frowned in thought, his temple blinking yellow quickly. “I guess it’s safe to assume that all of the officers in the precinct have these…secrets?”

Hank started to make a smart remark, then saw the troubled look on his partner’s face. He bit off a laugh instead.

“Jesus, Connor, everybody has their secrets. We’re all entitled to a little goddamn privacy.”

His face stayed troubled, and Hank picked up one of the cupcakes.

“What’s wrong, son?”

For a moment, Connor started to shake his head to dismiss the question, but then he straightened up and folded his arms defensively.

“I had been taking a moderate amount of pride in my ability to read my co-workers and understand them. Since joining the force, I have tried to accumulate as much information as was appropriate in order to better facilitate my integration among them.”

“You wanted to make friends. I get it.” Hank peeled the paper away from the bottom of the cupcake and started to munch on it.

Jesus Christ it was light and fluffy perfection…

“But clearly I have overlooked some things.” Connor looked almost ashamed to admit it.

“You don’t have to know every nook and cranny of a person to get along with them, kid,” Hank said, trying not to groan at how delicious this fucking cupcake was.

Tina sauntered into the break room. “Ooh! Cupcakes!”

She leaned deliberately in between Hank and Connor, plucking up one cupcake that had a particularly large amount of frosting, chirping out a quick “yoink!”

As she backed away with her prize, Connor leaned in somberly toward Hank, asking in a low voice. “What other secrets do you know?”

God, he looked so serious…

Tina’s head whipped around, having overheard him. “Connor, you nosy slut…Wait, are we sharing secrets? Because I’ve got some!”

Hank lifted a hand. “No, no, we’re not having gossip hour in the break room, especially not over cupcakes and coffee.”

“There’s coffee too?” Tina mouthed around the cupcake, looking for the fresh pot on the counter.

With her summarily distracted, Connor resumed pressing toward Hank.

“Please, Hank. I have made mistakes in the past where I asked questions on sensitive topics, and it led to…bad outcomes. They are finally beginning to trust me and…thaw out around me. I wish to avoid the minefield, so to speak.”

Hank finished off his cupcake. “You are literally asking me to tell you secrets about them behind their backs…You are neck deep in the minefield, son.”

Connor turned on the puppy eyes then. Hank often questioned why Cyberlife would equip their top of the line detective android with such a baby face that could pull off that kicked dog look so well…but shit, it was effective.

“Fuck, fine.” Hank caved after all of two seconds. “You get one each. Then I don’t want to hear any more about it. Get to know your co-workers the old fashioned way and ask them like a person.”

Connor lit up at the idea of getting more information, and he eagerly looked out toward the bullpen, assessing the other officers.

“Okay...Captain Fowler.”

“Ah, you already got one on him. Stress baker. Next.” Hank drank from his coffee.

Tina had polished off her cupcake at this point and was licking the remains from the paper that it had been wrapped in. It was a messy, unsightly thing to behold.

“Tina, some day you will have to answer to God for the way you live your life.”

Tina snorted and threw away the destroyed paper. “That’s cute that you think I’m ever going to die.”

“Officer Miller,” Connor named the next victim.

Hank exhaled heavily and leaned against the table, pointing with his coffee mug. “His wife is the one who proposed to him, instead of the other way around.”

“That’s…worthy of being a secret?” Connor lifted an eyebrow.

“Yeah, because it was romantic as shit. I’m talking a snowy carriage ride, hot chocolate, revisiting all the places in the city where they hit their relationship milestones…She even timed it so she popped the question about ten minutes before a fireworks show over the river.” Hank smiled into his coffee.

Chris had babbled the whole story to him in a private conversation that Hank didn’t think he meant to start. The poor guy had needed to tell somebody; it had been practically radiating from him in waves. He’d nearly been frothing at the mouth with how in love he was with his new fiancé, but he knew he’d get shit for not being the one to take a knee and ask first. In any case, Hank had been too deep in his own issues at the time to do anything but congratulate him and move on.

“That’s…a nice secret though.” Connor’s expression softened as he looked over to where Chris was pecking at his keyboard. “He shouldn’t be embarrassed by that.”

Tina took another cupcake.

“Really?” Hank asked.

Tina shrugged. “I didn’t get any of the cheesecake the other day.”

“There was cheesecake?!”

“Officer Collins.”

“Ben is a Trekkie,” Hank answered smoothly. “Goes to conventions, he cosplays, the whole nine yards. He speaks fluent Klingon, and you get him drunk enough, he’ll go off on it.”

Tina cackled. “I knew that letter opener looked like a bat’leth. Why’s he hide that? That’s awesome.”

“Because of nimrods like you.” Hank shoved her away. “Will you get the fuck out of here?”

Tina pouted and took a third cupcake. “Whatever. Come on, darling, let’s go.” She cooed at her cupcake, leaving the break room.

Connor watched her leave with a drawn look. “What about Officer Chen?”

“Tina has no secrets,” Hank said with a shake of his head. “She lives too loud and is just…violently herself.”

Connor smirked in amusement, tracking the bullpen again.

“How about Officer Wilson?”

Hank followed his gaze into the bullpen, where Ben and Officer Person were standing at Wilson’s desk chatting. Wilson was a quiet one. Hank wouldn’t call it ‘shyness,’ but he more just chose his words carefully and wasn’t usually the one to speak up first.

“He, uh…You know how most of the staff androids got rid of their Cyberlife uniforms and all started wearing normal clothes…almost overnight?” He pointed. “That was Wilson.”

Connor blinked, looking at Hank, at Wilson, at Hank, at Wilson, and then at Julia, the clerical android, as an example. She was leaving Captain Fowler’s office with a box of case files in her arms. She was wearing a bright pastel pink blouse with gold stars printed on them. It was a fashionably oversized shirt over purple leggings and low heeled sandals. Her long brown hair was tied up in a high ponytail with an obnoxiously glittery silver clip.

“He…donated clothes to the androids?” Connor asked softly.

“Bought,” Hank corrected. “Brand new stuff for all of them, probably a couple different whole outfits each too. Every payday weekend he takes a couple of them out shopping too. His wife is a big time lawyer, so they can afford it.”

Connor was quiet for a long moment. When he spoke, it was almost a whisper.

“That’s…incredible. Why doesn’t anyone say anything?”

Hank lifted his shoulders. “We don’t all need a pat on back for doing something good.”

“Good?” Connor shook his head. “That is beyond…My people had nothing but the clothes on their backs when the revolution happened…and even the clothes weren’t theirs. They were android identifiers and marks of ownership. He’s given them…a sense of autonomy…”

“Whoa, don’t go too far into it, kid.” Hank patted him on the shoulder. “But yeah, Wilson is good as gold. We all know it, without knowing all the details.”

Connor looked like he’d momentarily forgotten his question, too lost in the revelation that there really were humans besides Hank who gave a damn about androids’ well being. Not just that they were considered alive, but that they would have needs like that.

The heavy moment passed slowly, and then Connor cleared his throat, rolling his shoulder to shake off the lingering emotion of Officer Wilson’s secret.

“Um, o-okay,” he resumed awkwardly. “Officer Person?”

Person had returned to her desk in that time, and as such she was sitting within earshot of their clandestine conversation. She peered over at them, hearing her name. Fortunately, Hank had…nothing.

“She’s been here a few years now, transferred in, and I still know hardly anything about her,” Hank said, not breaking eye contact with the younger officer first.

Person just stared back, challenging either of them to attempt to know anything about her.

Hank lowered his mug. “Person, what’s your first name?”

“I don’t have one,” she bit back guardedly.

Connor’s eyebrows shot up. “That’s not possible—“

Person pointed at him. “Don’t you scan me, Connor. I share what I share, and if I choose to share nothing, then that’s all you get. You hear me?”

Hank chuckled uneasily. “Jesus, it’s a first name, not a kidney. C’mon, give us something. Connor just wants to know everybody a little better.”

Person narrowed her eyes. “Fine, you want to know my story? I grew up in the lap of luxury, the top tier of high society. My parents ran a multi-billion dollar company. We were rich beyond imagination…One night when I was a child, they took me to the opera…Afterward, when we left the opera house, a vagrant tried to mug us. He shot both of my parents dead in an alley and left me with their bodies. From that day on, I swore to bring justice back to the streets of this city. I would work in the shadows, and all criminals would fear my name. I have a base of operations in a cave—“

“Hold up,” Hank stopped her, looking incredulously to Connor. “You just described Batman.”

Connor’s eyes widened, staring ahead. “Lieutenant.”

Hank looked back at Person’s desk to find her vanished. Her chair was gently swiveling in her wake.

He blinked, and they both looked around, but Person was just fucking gone.

“Ooooooookay.” Hank took a step backward. “That’s weird.”

“Where did she go?” Connor whispered, looking around the office, then the ceiling. “Can she hear us?”

“Let’s forget about Person.” Hank settled down his nerves at the strange officer’s stranger exit.

Connor still looked puzzled, but he agreed to move on.

“Detective Reed.”

“Pass. Next.”

“Hank…” Connor huffed. “He is prominently the only officer who I have not gained any ground with at all. Please, give me something. Where did he get that facial scar? Why does he hate androids so much? He’s almost polite to the other androids on staff, so is it just ME that he hates? If so, why? What is with that purple rubber duck on his desk? Is—“

“Ah, ah, ah, shut up.” Hank cuffed him on the arm. “I have exactly two good pieces of dirt on Reed, and I am keeping them right here.” He patted his chest right over his heart. “One is leverage in case I ever need to get him to do something for me. The other…” He paused and immediately hated that he paused because he knew Connor would pick up on it. “…The other is just a, uh, an embarrassing story for, uh, for blackmail purposes.”

The lie came quickly, but not quickly enough.

Connor’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Hank…”

“Let me tell you about that rubber duck…”

Connor averted his eyes. “Hank, I’m not going to pressure you to share anything that you don’t feel comfortable sharing…This is just all research to help me get along with the others.”

Hank looped an arm around his neck, pulling the android in for a rough side hug. “Then just do what you did to get to know me. That seemed to work out well for you.”

Then again, that had involved Connor breaking through his window, throwing his drunk ass in a cold shower, and snooping around his house while Hank puked his guts out in the bathroom.

Hank made a face and stepped away from Connor, taking his arm back.

“Then again, maybe just…small talk. Yeah, make small talk instead.”

Connor looked put out, but he mercifully let it drop with a soft sigh.

Hank plucked up a second cupcake for himself as Connor trudged out of the break room, looking like a piece of meat heading into shark infested waters. Fortunately, the ‘sharks’ were just a squad of idiots, and it didn’t take long for Tina to drag Connor into whatever half-baked conversation she was in with Chris and Ben.

Speaking of baking…Hank carried the cupcake in hand as he walked up the steps to Fowler’s office. Without so much as a knock, he nudged the door open and held up the cupcake. The captain looked up at his intrusion, and he scowled when he saw what Hank was holding.

“So…Jeffrey,” Hank said, leaning against the wall and taking an idle bite of the cupcake. “…What’s going on?”


End file.
